India, 2024. 8,342 candidates from 752 parties contested 543 seats; 42 parties won at least one.
Parties contesting
752
2024 · 42 of them won a seat
Largest party
240seats
Bharatiya Janta Party · 36.93% of votes
Deposits lost
86.02%
7,176 of 8,342 candidates
Effective parties
5.3
By vote share · lower means more dominant
Candidates per seat
15.4
8,342 for 543 declared seats
[02]Vote share against seat share
2024 · bar is vote share, marker is seat share
First-past-the-post rarely pays out in proportion. The bar is the share of votes a
party won; the marker is the share of seats it took. A marker to the right of its
bar means the system paid the party more seats than its votes alone would buy.
Bharatiya Janta Party
36.93%240 seats · +7.27 pts
Indian National Congr…
21.4%99 seats · -3.17 pts
Samajwadi Party
4.63%37 seats · +2.19 pts
All India Trinamool C…
4.42%29 seats · +0.93 pts
Dravida Munnetra Kazh…
1.84%22 seats · +2.21 pts
Telugu Desam
2.0%16 seats · +0.95 pts
Janata Dal (united)
1.26%12 seats · +0.95 pts
Shiv Sena (uddhav Bal…
1.5%9 seats · +0.16 pts
Nationalist Congress…
0.92%8 seats · +0.55 pts
Independent
2.79%7 seats · -1.5 pts
Shiv Sena
1.16%7 seats · +0.13 pts
Lok Janshakti Party(r…
0.44%5 seats · +0.48 pts
Yuvajana Sramika Ryth…
2.08%4 seats · -1.35 pts
Communist Party of In…
1.77%4 seats · -1.04 pts
[03]Strike rate — candidates who won
2024 · parties fielding 5 or more
Dravida Munnetra Kazh…
100.0%22/22
Lok Janshakti Party(r…
100.0%5/5
Telugu Desam
94.12%16/17
Janata Dal (united)
75.0%12/16
Nationalist Congress…
72.73%8/11
All India Trinamool C…
60.42%29/48
Bharatiya Janta Party
54.42%240/441
Samajwadi Party
52.11%37/71
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha
50.0%3/6
Shiv Sena
46.67%7/15
[04]Deposits lost
Candidates under a sixth of the valid vote · newest first
2024
86.02%7,176 of 8,342
2019
85.96%6,913 of 8,042
2014
84.91%7,029 of 8,278
2009
84.59%6,826 of 8,070
2004
77.59%4,217 of 5,435
1999
73.21%3,403 of 4,648
1998
73.52%3,492 of 4,750
1996
90.96%12,691 of 13,952
1991
86.25%7,546 of 8,749
1989
81.28%5,007 of 6,160
[05]How crowded the ballot got
Candidates per seat · newest first
2024
15.48,342 candidates
2019
14.88,042 candidates
2014
15.28,278 candidates
2009
14.98,070 candidates
2004
10.05,435 candidates
1999
8.64,648 candidates
1998
8.84,750 candidates
1996
25.713,952 candidates
1991
16.48,749 candidates
1989
11.66,160 candidates
[06]Independents
Candidates standing without a party · newest first
2024
3,9067 won
2019
3,4554 won
2014
3,2553 won
2009
3,8319 won
2004
2,3855 won
1999
1,9456 won
1998
1,9156 won
1996
10,6369 won
1991
5,5461 won
1989
3,71312 won
[07]Computed insights
Arithmetic over the table above, not commentary
Bharatiya Janta Party took 44.2% of the seats on 36.93% of the votes — a seat bonus of +7.27 pts.
seat share 44.2 - vote share 36.93
Indian National Congress went the other way: 21.4% of votes returned only 18.23% of seats.
seat share 18.23 - vote share 21.4
86.02% of candidates lost their deposit in 2024 — 7,176 of 8,342 polled under a sixth of the valid vote.
7176/8342 below the one-sixth threshold
3,906 independents stood and 7 won — a strike rate of 0.18%.
7/3906 independents
The field has grown more fragmented since 1962: the effective number of parties moved from 4.2 to 5.3.